Power goes out as Bashara's ex-mistress starts testifying

Bob Bashara’s preliminary exam for allegedly hiring someone to kill his wife was delayed for the second time in three days Wednesday, this time due to a power outage in downtown Detroit that also struck the courthouse.

Bashara’s former mistress, Rachel Gillett, had just started to testify about her and Bashara’s unusual lifestyle when the courtroom went dark. The lights quickly returned, but the courthouse was evacuated and later closed for the rest of the day.

A fidgety, seemingly nervous Gillett testified that she met Bashara in August 2008 over the website, www.alt.com, for alternative lifestyles, and began dating after chatting online and over the telephone.

She said she was familiar with the lifestyle that she described as, “bondage discipline sadomasochism, I think.” She also said she called Bashara “Master Bob.”

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She revealed that Bashara suffered from erectile dysfunction but they were able to maintain an intimate relationship in other ways.

She said she went to what prosecutors called the “dungeon” in the basement of the building Bob Bashara owned on Mack Avenue, in Grosse Pointe Park.

Asked by Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Lisa Lindsey to describe “breath play,” she replied, “It’s choking, usually with the hands around the throat.”

Then the courtroom light went out.

Gillett is expected to retake the stand Thursday morning when the hearing continues in 36th District Court.

Bashara, 55, is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and other charges in connection with the January 2012 strangulation of Jane Bashara, 56, in the garage of the couple’s Grosse Pointe Park home. Her body was discovered in her SUV parked in an east-side Detroit alley.

Joe Gentz, 49, formerly of St. Clair Shores, told authorities he killed Jane Bashara under threat and the promise of payment from Bashara, who owned multiple income properties. Gentz pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 17 to 28 years in prison on the promise he would testify against Bashara, although he is not expected to testify until Bashara’s trial.

On Monday, the case was delayed a half day when a defendant in custody stabbed a Wayne County Sheriff’s deputy with a comb made into a knife and escaped from the courthouse. He was captured about 10 p.m. Monday based on a tip following extensive media coverage.

Jessica Bashara testified she talked to her mother only hours before her death as Jane Bashara drove on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit on the way home from work.

Jessica said her father informed her about her mother’s death, and speculated it could have been a carjacking. After she learned her father was having an affair, he started to mention Gentz, she said, and eventually admitted a nonsexual affair with “Rachel.” He later told his daughter that he had hired a private investigator to try to find Jane Bashara’s killer.

Jessica Bashara said her parents’ marriage was troubled before the slaying and that they were in counseling. Her mother’s credit had gone bad due to her father’s financial problems, she said. Her mother had up to $900,000 in her 401(k) account while her father had about $60,000 in retirement funds, she testified.

Jessica said she caught her father several times looking at pornography online and accessing atl.com.

Jessica Bashara also said her father gave Rachel a ring meant for her mother. It was her father’s great-aunt’s ring.

Virgona, 56, said he knew Gentz in high school and reconnected with him in 2008 or 2009. He said he first met Bashara in 2011 when Bashara was showing Gentz the apartment he was to rent on Wayburn in Grosse Pointe.

Virgona said Gentz told him about a friend who wanted to hire someone to perform a hit-and-run car crash on his wife for $5,000, but Virgona didn’t want to be involved.

Gentz the next day said he was joking but later talked about doing a carjacking instead of a hit-and-run, or getting insulin for Bob Bashara.

The issue of insulin arose again when Schatz testified. Schatz, who lived in Bashara’s St. Clair Shores apartment building, said Bashara asked him for insulin and diabetic needles because Schatz’s wife was diabetic.

Schatz said Bashara’s cousin, Stephanie Samuel, wrote a character letter for Bashara that Schatz had to sign or Bashara said he would evict him.

Barraco testified that around Thanksgiving and Christmas 2011, Gentz asked him if he would hit a woman with a car for $5,000. Barraco said he didn’t want anything to do with it.

In January 2012, Barraco was asked to pick Gentz up from an east-side Detroit McDonald’s after Gentz called him five or six times, Barraco said. Jane Bashara was killed the night of Jan. 24, 2012.

About the Author

My beat is the courts of Macomb County and general assignment.
Read more of Jameson Cook's court coverage on his blog http://courthousedish.blogspot.com/ Reach the author at jamie.cook@macombdaily.com
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